Catch The Rolling Stones, Foo Fighters, Skrillex & More For a Whole $98 at 48th Edition of Le Festival d’été
By: Juliette Jagger
With the summer festival season now in full swing, it can be difficult at times to decide which events to attend and where to spend all those sweaty, hard earned dollars. A quality line-up is usually the deciding factor, but with the average cost of a festival pass now clocking in somewhere around $250 Canadian dollars, striking a balance between Arctic Monkeys and affordability has become something of an art.
That’s where Le Festival d’été de Québec comes in. Continuously referred to as one of the country’s best-kept musical secrets, the 11-day citywide festival, which kicks off on July 9 and will run until July 19, is set to feature a stellar cross-genre lineup of acts that includes The Rolling Stones, Foo Fighters, Nickelback, and Deep Purple, The Doobie Brothers, Boston, Skrillex, Iggy Azalea, and even country icon Keith Urban, all for a nominal $98 bucks.
“Still going strong after 48 years, the FEQ has never stopped aiming for the top,” says General Manager Daniel Gélinas. “Once again, we’ve shown that we can go out and get the best that the music world has to offer and deliver exactly what our fans want today,” adds Program Director Louis Bellavance. “Every year, we aim for a program that lets everyone choose the music they want, and I think [this year] we’ve succeeded.”
With an emphasis on rock, hip-hop, electro, jazz, blues, world music and more, Festival d’été definitely excels in the programming department. Their famed Bell Stage, which overlooks the historic Plains of Abraham and will host all of this year’s headlining acts, will once again serve as the centerpiece of the Fest d’ete experience. For those looking to catch the latest and greatest indie artists, the Loto-Québec Stage at Parc de la Francophonie will feature performances from Vance Joy, Future Islands, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Milky Chance, and even Interpol.
The Festival’s indoor shows are also becoming increasingly popular. This year, punk legends Anti-Flag and MAP are both slated to play the Impérial Bell as are Yelle, the Black Lips, Run the Jewels, and Lisa Leblanc. New for 2015 are ElectroFEQ and the Fullflex Express Tour, which is being heading by electronic sensation, Jack Ü.
With close to 1000 artists and some one million people expected to descend upon downtown Quebec City over the course of the next two weeks, it seems that the word is finally out on Festival d’été. These guys continuously manage to curate high caliber lineups at an incredibly fair price point and they have worked long and hard to build the sort of word-of mouth reputation that now sees legendary musicians approaching them with requests to play.
As Chairman of The Board Louis Duchesne puts it, “You can’t put on a festival of this scope without going for major investments. We wanted to make the festival not just the best we could for our fans, but to put it right up there with the best there is.”
To purchase tickets to the 48th edition of Festival d’été or for information on hotel packages and other handy festival tips visit: http://www.infofestival.com/